Sunday, September 5, 2010

Yes I am alive!!!

Yes I know I have not written in a while! Ok a long while…. (thanks dad for the daily reminders!… haha). But I am back now. I have been doing lots of stuff since my last posting. Lets see where to begin. I finished up training at the beginning of August, did my last LPI (Language Proficiency Interview, more like inquisition, seriously I have had IR exams in college that did not dread as much!) hahaha. But I tested out of Spanish at Intermediate-Medium. But they still wanted me and six others to head out to the coast for two more weeks of language training, really it was for learning how effing fast they speak on the coast. Really it would have been helpful to have training on the coast, but I will settle for two weeks!

Well, after we finished up training we all headed back down to Quito for Swear-In. That was actually a fun trip because our bus got pulled over for ‘violating a traffic law’. I will admit that we were probably violating a few traffic laws with all 40+ people and all our luggage crammed onto one bus. But we all made it, checked into the hostel and had a great time the next couple of days. Though I was fighting a bad bout of tonsillitis the whole time :(.

The we all became volunteers on the 18th. Quite the experience, mostly because, as sad as this is, the bagels and cream cheese after the ceremony! The ceremony was held at the US Ambassadors residents, which was, to say the least SWEET! There was a really nice lawn and gardens, it was nice because we got to hang out after and soak in some sun. Later in the afternoon we got to have a picnic at the office. It was actually quite an amazing, burgers, hot dogs, pasta salad… your typical BBQ fare…

Later that night we had a little party at our hostel, a very fun night that was! The next morning we got up early and headed to Chone for two weeks. Here are some pictures off it all.

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The Cariacu training group.         US Ambassador & Country Dir.  

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The view from the lawn.                 On the way back to the hostel. DSCF0065

Party time.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Summer Camp has come to an end......

Well training has finally come to an end.... as a tear moves slowly down my cheek... Well not really, I'm finally ready to swear in and head to my site. But before I head to my site I am going to Chone for two weeks to further work on my coastal Spanish.

Yesterday I had the last of my test before I head back to Quito for swear in. I was able to test at Intermediate-medium in Spanish which I was really happy about. Other than that not much has been going on around here. But I will be able to update more after this week.

-Jackie

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!

So I was a little nervous about going on my site visit this week, but not anymore!! I love the organization that I am working with and I love the family that I will be living with. I have a great set-up. I live close enough that I can walk 15 min to work. And i have a great office, with some really amazing people. The city is big, its busy, but its great... I finally get that South American vibe from it. I will have internet everyday at work! and in my house! I am going to take pictures tonight, and tomorrow... I know everyone wants to see pictures! But the internet is really slow up north and im only here for a couple of days! But i will post them!

Btw, the heat is not as bad as I thought is was going to be, but they are keep telling me that its really cold here, and they have jackets on.... we shall see!


-J

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Its been wayyyyy to long....

Hello Everyone!

Sorry it has been such a loong time since I have writen on my blog, it has been crazy busy the last couple of weeks, but i had some time after cook classes today to write... I have been trying to load photos for a while but will no luck, but dont worry i am taking them!

Training has been going great, have all sorts of classes during the week, lots of mud and rain the last couple of weeks, with a few nice days peppered in....

The next two weeks are the big weeks though... Next week I get to find out where I will be living the next two years...eeks... its a surprise but not really, for those of us in the HIV program we are going to be in the province of Guayas, and mostly in Guayaquil... Then the week after that we head out for our site visit which will be very interesting, it will be the first time that i will be on my own since i have been here... But i will be just fine, but after that we will be back for a couple of weeks and then onto our tech trip.... But i only have about 5 and a half more weeks here in training... I will hopefully upday you guys agian soon...


-J

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Training has begun!

Well after a nice couple of days in Quito, we moved onto out training sites just outside of Cayambe. The city of Cayambe is about 40,000 people just North of Quito, and the equador. Our bus trip up to Cayambe was interesting to say the least! Our trip started out at our little hostel in Quito, where we all piled into the bus and headed over to the PC offices to pick up our BIG bags and head to Cayambe to meet our host families, which was both nerve racking and exciting! How ever when we showed up and got our bags to load on the bus, things got a little interesting. ALL 40+ health trainees bags could not fit on the bus, so we packed as many as we could in the bottom of the bus and then through the window pass the bags to the back of the bus! How ever the trainees who were sitting in the back were out of luck, and had to sit on the bags! People were crammed into every corner of the bus, but we made it work! We then took a 1 1/2 hour bus ride north, we got to see some very interesting things, including the equator sign which was really cool.

We got to Cayambe and piled into the back of a truck bags and all (literally!) and off we were! It is absolutely beautiful here!!! I will post lots of pictures! We got to the first house to drop off the first person at their house, which was supposed to be me, we got all of my stuff out of the truck, and I had started to meet all of my host family, and then everyone was ready to head to the next house when they realized that I was at the wrong house and they had switched me and another person. So we got everything re-packed in the truck, said good by and then headed to drop everyone else off… We got to my house and no one was home :( They had some car trouble so they were unable to meet me… so I went to another trainees house to stay with them for awhile while my family made it home!

We took a little walk around the area which was nice, it rained off and on, and walked back to town with my other training site friends. It was really nice to see everything, I did take a lot of pictures! My family made it home and I got to meet them, they are really really great people! I was really tired and it was really late to I will have to ask their names again in the morning. I have a mom, a dad, brother, sister, and an uncle, AND a puppy :)

Well until next time… Hasta luego!

-J

Friday, June 18, 2010

Made it to Ecuador!!

Hola! Well here I am in Ecuador! It took a lot to get here, but we are just now chilling in the hostel, and we are now headed to our host families near Cayambe tomorrow, which I am really excited about! The past couple of days have been long and tiring. So far training has consisted in a crash course of everything and all things Ecuador! So far I am really excited to get things going with my work, but there is still a lot of stuff to do before I am at that stage.

The first day that we were at the PC office we did our language test, I was really nervous about it. I personally thought that I did quite bad at it, and that I was going to test beyond low! LOL… But when we got our training assignments today I actually tested higher than I thought that I was going to do. I tested at beginner high, so I am pretty happy about that. That means that I only have to go up two notches to be able to swear in :)

Well I have a lot of stuff to do before tomorrow (packing, yet again...writing letters, programming my phone) So I will post again from Cayambe.

PS: We have not really done much other than go from hostel-to-bus-to-office and back…. so I have not really taken any pictures! But I will be taking a ton of them tomorrow!

-J

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Stagging

Hola de Ecuador! Los voluntarios de Cuerpo de Paz y yo vamos a Ecuador hoy! Ok thats about all I got right now on my Spanish lol… well it turns out there are 68 of us voluntarios heading to Ecuador, most of us are in the Community Health extension, with a few in the Youth and Families group. It was fun to spend some time in DC, and to see Miss Cyndi :)

But other than that not much has happened to exciting, but I think that it will get real crazy when we finally get to Ecuador, and I am pretty anxious to get this party started!

I will write again when I get there…

-J

DSCF0216  Food @ Ben’s

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DC Metro

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Packing Hell….

Well I have managed to make it to the last week… only a couple more days to go!! Im so happy I could cry, I want to get to Ecuador so bad, at this point I am considering hitchhiking there now…

But before I do, I have been doing a lot of prepping in the last two weeks, getting all of the paper work in order, quitting my job, relaxing, stressing, and most of all packing. I think I set a personal record for packing, being ready two weeks a head of schedule! And come to find out I was way under weight for my bags! :)

But then came the real fun of trying not to use any of the stuff I had already packed. Which I think I did quite well, though I have been living in the same ratty jeans and sweat pants for a couple of days. But now everything is all in bags and sitting next to my room waiting for the big trip down south. I only have a day left before I had out of Seattle, and the weather is going to be great for my last couple of days :)

I will leave you with a couple of photo’s of my last week or so on the West Coast… Now its on to DC!

-J

packing pile  going away party cham

Edmonds sunset

Monday, May 10, 2010

I have not posted in a long time... in yet another waiting game...

Well... Its been a while since I posted last, but really not much has happened since the last time I post. After the shock of finally getting my invite, reality set in.... 'Holy crap, I have a lot to do in the next... oh, ummm lets see 75 days'..... Well that has turned into 'OMG, OMG, OMG.... HOLY CRAP.... I have 34 Days to get this stuff done!'...

Well I have my little check list, have my packing list done, done with getting everything for my trip, but now its just getting to the point where I can do a practice pack, so I can see if i actually bring everything on my list.

Now I'm just waiting for my staging packet... wiating... yet again...it hopefully will come this week :). I also am going to a Peace Corps Nomination/Invite party in Seattle so that should be interesting to meet others :)

Well, on to packing.... I will post pictures from my packing experience....

-J

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Ecuador!!!


Once they said South America leaving mid-June, I was pretty sure that I was going to be going to Ecuador... Which I am totally excited for!!! How could I not be?

So I have watched the Anthony Bourdain episode from Ecuador about three times since yesterday! Now its on to other more pressing stuff, getting though all this paper work, getting passports, and most of all finalizing my packing list and getting things together. One things that im dont know what im going to name my blog now that I know where im going.

-J

Thursday, March 25, 2010

INVITATION!!!!! AHHHHHHH

Finally after months of waiting, My invitation is in the mail. After I got an email from my PO yesterday about my willingness to go to Central/South America, I knew something was up. My dad said...'I say you are going to get an invite within a week..'..... I had asked my PO when I would expect to hear about an invite.... low and behold 24hrs later, I get another email telling me that my invitation was sent out today..... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AHHHH... needless to say im REALLY excited!

The only thing that is different is that im leaving about two weeks later (whatev..), and im not going to Africa :(... My friend Perry is going to kill me! meh... he will just have to come see me then!

So now its just stalking my towns Postmaster for my mail!

So for now South America here I come!!!!

-J

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

I didn't know that Honduras is in Africa?!?!

Ok.... So I get an email today from my placement officer, and I was like Yesssss, I am finally hearing back from someone about my placement! I'm at work so I'm just skimming the email and it goes on to say something like '... there is another health program leaving in mid-June, going to Central/South America.... you down for that?'....

...First, that would be just as amazing as going to Africa, like I told them in the interview, I don't care where I go, I just want to go.... Then it hit me... Wait what?!?!?!?! South or Central America?? Sweet, I'm down... I'm ready to go... its only like two weeks later than I was going to be leaving for Africa....

I'm not really surprised as to this latest development, I have known lots of people to be going one place and not the place that they were originally going.... I still don't have my invite but I have a feeling that I will be getting it soon.... There are three countries that are posted right now leaving mid-June, Ecuador, Honduras, Peru..... we shall see, ill keep you updated....

-J

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Pics of the Storm



These are all pretty thick limbs that fell on the house. Luckly we didnt have any serious damage to the house, but we did get another limb about the same size the next day. The crazy thing was no one new that this wind storm was going to hit, and it only lasted about 2 hours...



This is tree #3, I think someone had already chopped it up for firewood.

This was tree #2 across the road. You had to drive in the ditch to get around it, this was before the road crews showed up and there was just that lonely cone. It only took them about 1 min to chop it up.

-J

Thursday, March 11, 2010

My name is Jackie... and I have a problem.....

No seriously I have a problem, but I am recognizing that before it gets out of hand..... I know alot of my fellow applicants kno what I am talking about.... its the addiction in PCJ and PC wiki....

I have noticed that alot of people have been posting that they have been obsessing over finding out the whens and wheres of their invitation. I am very much in that group, and I will admit that I have checked out to see if others have received their invites and if there are any new staging dates list, about 20 times a day. What can I say I am just really excited to go!! One thing that I have noticed is that I have actually been waiting 7 months now since I finished every thing, which at times feels like twice that long, others it feels like yesterday.

Something that did get me through another week of waiting on pins and needles is that another post on PCJ by someone who just got her invite this week and is leaving in mid/late April.... ahhh getting closer and closer to May departures :) I just have to keep the mind set that they will get to me soon...

To pass the time me and my dad started to bet on what day I will get my invite (which as of midnight the 18th I loose, damn!)... I got my lightweight computer fixed so I don't have to get a brand new one, and can trash it even more than my senior thesis did.

On a non-PC related topic this week we had a massive wind storm in the NW! (One thing that I am going to secretly miss, that and earthquakes) I will post pictures later, but for two hours we got 65mph winds, two tree across the road, no power, and some wind damage at home.... It was fun until I tried to drive in it!

Till next time, and if any one from May health ex. SSA group has heard anything I could really use a fix, LOL....

-J

Friday, March 5, 2010

OMG my Placement Officer does exist!

Update:

So believe it or not I actually got an email back from my PO(or at least her assistant) the very next day saying that every thing was good and that she didn't need any more info from me at this time and that if there is anything else the PO would contact me. But from the email it sounded like everything was on the up and up, and I was still on track for getting my invite. So this is all positive juju which I need to keep my sanity right now.

In other news they have added (which I'm sure those of you who are eagerly awaiting news of your postings already know) but they have recently added three countries to the May departures.... YAYAYAYA..... unfortunately none of them are going to Africa, let alone SSA.... but they added them in a short amount of time, so it seems like they are starting to get to the May departures YESSSSSS!!!!

Other than that its just more of the same.... trying to get it off my mind....

-J

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Packing lists and dreaming of care packages....

...Pondering... While standing in line at the post office....

A few things that I have found/thought about while looking at Peace Corps stuff, if (fingers crossed) I am right about going to Malawi there is a new Lonely Planet guide coming out on the 10th of March. It not only covers Malawi, but also Zambia (here I come Perry). There is also a new Lonely Planet Southern Africa Guide that is coming out on the same day. One of the two I will definitely invest in for when I go over there!

I also shipped a package to my friend in Zambia, and I was surprised at actually how cheap it was (well relatively speaking). I know that the package that I sent will take a while to get there, but for future reference (wink wink) these are the flat rate box prices to send people internationally:

-Large $55.95
-Medium (both shapes) $43.45
-Small $13.95

I sent off a email today to my placement officer also, just to see if they were alive. Just a hey-is-there-anything- that-you-need-from-me email... hopefully I get a response... soon... But in the mean time I am compiling a bunch of packing lists from others who have gone to Malawi or in that general area, and others (they are pretty universal, thought there are a few things that will have to be tailored to fit where I am going. Some of the things that people are bringing don't make sense to me (i swear someone said they brought a pressure cooker), but I will write one down for people when I get it finalized...

I have a question tho for any of you who are applicants.

Almost all the blogs I have read people are bringing their laptops or wish they had. Anyone else contemplating this?


-J



Sunday, February 28, 2010

My first Peace Corps blog posting!

Hello Hello Hello...

This is my first posting of my Peace Corps service. As you can see I have posted an approximate timeline of my fun, often aggravating Peace Corps application process! As of right now I am just waiting on my invitation which will hopefully will come soon. There is not much else I have to do until then, unless my placement officer needs something.

I have already started to get things together, but most of all I have been doing a lot of research, and seeing what other people are going through on their own path to Peace Corps. From a lot of things people are writing, it seems that I am right on course for my invitation but its just a matter of not ripping my hair out in the mean time. I have also been talking to some people who said Peace Corps actually does this whole waiting game on purpose, not hearing from them for long periods of time is a test, because if you can't wait two month to hear back then you wont be able to survive in the Peace Corps. But be rest assured things are going to work out.

In the mean time I have been pouring over the Internet trying to figure out where I am going. Its a little conflicting because from what I have been able to figure out I should be going to Malawi. However, my friend who left for Zambia has this magical power of Peace Corps and was able to predict his posting two years before he left, and he says that I will be going to Namibia. My dad also thinks this because of some random conversations with people that involved PCV's who were posted in Namibia... So what am I to think... hmmmm

well back to scouring the Internet for Peace Corps.

-J